Peering into its crystal ball, Open Channel outlines the hospitality industry’s radical shift in thinking that enabled it to survive the Great Recession of 2008-2010. By Susan Radojevic, July/August 2009

Last issue, Open Channel put forth a conversation, in 2020, with Georgina Hvar, CEO, Global Learning Events, discussing how the meetings industry weathered the economic crisis of 2008-2010.

This month, Hvar outlines the hospitality industry’s radical shift in thinking that allowed it to survive The Great Recession.

OC: The economic crisis caused businesses to scrutinize the meetings and events (M&E) and travel and hospitality (hospitality) industry, exposing their failure to define and exploit their strategic business value proposition. This, combined with a widening deficit in strategic knowledge and skills, resulted in their failure to demonstrate how they deliver measured ROI.

Ten years later, under the Global Community umbrella, both M&E and hospitality are seen as key contributors of strategic value. How did hospitality get to be seen as offering strategic value?

Georgina Hvar: The M&E industry was born out of hospitality, by the supply chain needing a distribution channel to sell facilities and services. Also, its body of knowledge was created by hospitality and planners. The professional planner’s role revolved around hospitality logistics. To be seen as offering strategic value, we needed to retool the role of M&E as an investment and hospitality as the means to attend the event. We accomplished this by engaging in some therapy: an integrated industry vision.

OC: Tell us about the vision and, specifically, how the therapy process applied to hospitality.

Georgina Hvar: A few years prior to the crisis, MPI, the largest M&E association at the time, introduced the ‘think different’ concept, designed to ease its members into delivering event strategy in addition to logistics. We built on that concept and created the ‘Do Different’ Shift. It allowed us to shift three things: i) how M&E and hospitality were perceived; ii) our thinking and iii) how we did things.

We introduced the ‘Do Different’ Shift in 2009.

People struggled. It’s not easy to shift long-standing practices and thinking patterns from zero to 35,000 ft., where thinking is conceptual, not process-driven. Hospitality frontrunners quickly realized the need to reinvent their approach. Their solution: add portable tools and resources to their offerings – moveable whiteboards, collaborative technologies, etc. They forged strategic partnerships with subject matter experts (SME) and offered meeting and creative design. Hospitality connected SMEs with clients, using its physical space as the conduit to create a rich experience.

Part of the Association’s Merger Agreement was to create a Global Body of Knowledge and Economic Impact Research Centre. The Centre’s mandate was to develop market research and protect the industry from future economic crises. This was costly and complex. Hospitality sponsored the development of the industry’s first standard practice principles, policies and governance — the Meetings and Events Global Act (MEGA). Today, MEGA is considered one of the most comprehensive non-government acts.

OC: Why has the industry survived?

Georgina Hvar: Dedicated individuals volunteer their time and intellect to help shape our industry. We’re not always collaborative, but once we reach political consensus, we are unstoppable. George Bernard Shaw wrote, “the reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” Our industry is full of unreasonable women and men. This is why we survived the crisis of 2008-2010.

The channel is open.

— Susan Radojevic, president of Toronto-based The Peregrine Agency Ltd., is a leading authority on strategic event alignment. Weigh in by sending Susan a message: susan.radojevic@theperegrineagency.ca or visit Susan’s blog at www.theperegrineagency.ca